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PPS East, based in Grimsby, has started a new contract providing services for returnable fish crates to the Belgian company Levenstond Seafood who supply Belgium’s leading supermarkets with Scottish salmon.
At their new Grimsby site PPS has invested in state-of-the-art industrial wash lines where the used fish crates from Levenstond are washed, prior to being returned to Levenstond’s salmon supplier in Scotland.
PPS, with wash sites both at Grimsby and Measham in the Midlands, has been successfully providing services on returnable plastic crates, plastic boxes and plastic pallets for many years to the UK food sector.
This new contract with Levenstond, however, represents a breakthrough for PPS in an overseas market for returnable boxes where previously salmon had been transported in single-use expanded polystyrene (EPS) boxes.
PPS recently commissioned a report, carried out by the Humber Seafood Institute, comparing the carbon footprints of respectively a one-way trip EPS box and their returnable plastic fish boxes. Using the PPS boxes shows a remarkable 89% improvement versus the EPS box. (Use of the PPS box brings significant cost savings compared to the EPS box).
Previously, Levenstond was faced with the problem of disposing of the EPS boxes and have now asked PPS to contact another of their Scottish salmon suppliers with a view to providing them with a similar service for returnable fish boxes, again replacing EPS boxes.
PPS East was previously known as TFA Box Company until being acquired by PPS earlier this year. PPS also operates a large industrial wash site at Measham, where the company is known as PPS Midlands. The Midlands site services customers throughout the UK with emphasis on the poultry, dairy and retail sectors. The TFA acquisition introduced fish into the portfolio of industrial sectors serviced, but the management has expanded the Grimsby operation with significant investments in new plant and machinery.
The core business of PPS is that of the management of returnable transit equipment (RTE). This includes plastic crates and boxes, plastic pallets and bins or pallet boxes. PPS rents such equipment to its clients, manages it in the field or at third parties, collects used equipment and washes it to the highest standard (ISO 22000) before returning it to the equipment pool.
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